Automatic analysis devices analyze blood, urine, and other samples. Such device's manufacturers have been making various efforts to simplify the work associated with these devices. Much of the work is occupied by the calibration, maintenance, reagent changes, and other jobs that a user performs before and after measuring patient samples. The reagent changes, in particular, are among the jobs that the user absolutely needs to perform on a daily basis. If the reagents needed for the day's measurement are not set in the device beforehand, a lack of the reagents during the measurement of the patient samples is likely to cause no measurement result output, thus leading to a delay in reporting the results to the patients. In addition, expiration dates of the reagents used in automatic analysis devices are predetermined and use of an expired reagent is likely to cause output of inaccurate measurement results. For these reasons, the user also confirms whether the reagents that have been set in the device are within the expiration dates.
On a reagent management screen displayed by a conventional general-purpose automatic analysis device, various information, including analytical name of items, residual quantities, manufacturing lot numbers, serial numbers, and expiration dates, is displayed for each of reagent positions within a reagent disk. The reagents that need to be changed may be displayed at an upper section of a list as an example of various measures and ways to alert the user.
In addition to the screen displayed by the automatic analysis device, in order to allow the user to readily recognize a position in which to set a new reagent when he or she is to actually change reagents, independent indicator elements or display elements may be disposed inside the reagent disk for each of setting positions for the reagents to be changed (Patent Document 1, for example, discloses such a technique). In addition, status information on calibration, quality control, and reagents may be collectively displayed to allow the user to readily identify a problematic reagent (Patent Document 2, for example, discloses such a technique).